I have been using WD for more than 6 years now. I remember the previous softwares and I am now using WD Smartware. I generally love WD design and that is why I am continuosly buying the drives. However the backup software has never been to the same standard. Even now I am a bit disappointed. I would like two options added:

Retrieve to another computer but to try to place the files in the same type of locations as the old one was. if the locations are different, create the locations or identify that the user is different and then follow the same logic i.e if old was C:\users\pete\... and new is C:\users\mike\ than that should be identified and stored in that type of folder accordingly. Or at least have the flexibility to retrieve different files into specified locations that the user gives instead of just dumping it to one single folder.

The other issue is that you cannot backup one external WD with another. The old software was able to do that. This is very convenient as some people dont use their computer to save original files but the actual external WD drive because they have to work on multiple computers. THAT OPTION SHOULD BE A MUST.

add ability to change drives in the Backup and Retrieve tabs rather than having to go back to the Home tab to make change.

1. The option for the user to specify variations to the standard rules for category backup.  So for example to add .exe for user folders, which can be useful if the user is creating programs themselves, or to remove eg .tmp for certain user folders, which my Smartware has backed up despite it supposedly being universally excluded.

2. The ability to delete files from the backup drive under the control of Smartware, since it is not clear what happens if you do that.  For example I have a lot of space taken up by files now deleted from the PC's drive.  This could take the form of a purge facility as in WD Anyware.

WD smartware should have an option to "back-up now", run an entire backup (backing up all new files), and the stop all processes. The user would be given the option to use this (or on a schedule) instead of the continuous back up now employed. This would provide a soolution to users experiencing issues with WDFME.exe.

A user could hit "back-up" as they are leaving the office or going to bed, and back up the days work.